If you live close to a renewable energy facility, such as wind turbine, expect to receive a survey in the mail asking how this may have impacted your health.

The Municipality of Chatham-Kent, along with the counties of Bruce, Dufferin, Elgin, Essex, Frontenac, Huron and Norfolk are included in the Quality of Life and Renewable Energy Technologies Study from the University of Waterloo.

Approximately 5,000 residents living near renewable energy sources are being invited to take part in the survey.

There has been plenty of people who have complained about health problems, they believe are caused by renewable energy facilities, in particular, wind turbines. The tough part has been coming up with the scientific proof to support those claims.

“That is the problem, that's why we're doing the study,” said U of W Prof. Phil Bigelow, an epidemiologist at the School of Public Health and Health Systems.

“That's why we're encouraging people to complete the survey, because if the response rate isn't high . . . the results are criticized,” he told The Chatham Daily News.

He added, “the validity improves if we have a greater sample size.”

Bigelow said the study of renewable energy technologies, which include wind turbines as well as bio fuel and solar operations.

He said the survey includes questions about health and potential symptoms that may be caused by renewable energy facilities.

“It also asks about quality of life and community impacts of these facilities.”

Bigelow said the study is part of the provincial-funded research group Ontario Research Chair program in Renewable Energy Technologies and Health.

Waterloo Prof. Siva Sivoththman said, in a written release: “These health studies are an important part of our Research Chair program by helping us understand the relationship between the renewable energy technologies and potential health effects.”

While the study receives provincial funding, Bigelow said this is an independent study and the university is not concerned what the provincial government thinks.

“The data is what the data says, that's what we want to get at,” he said.

In terms of wind turbines, Bigelow said a small group of participants will be asked to take part in a more detailed health study that includes having a nurse visit their home.

The people who are closer any renewable energy facility are expected to have the greatest impacts from exposure, so they will be among those asked, he said.

Bigelow said this will involve collecting biological samples to “look for markers of stress.”

One of the biological samples that will be checked is a person's cortisol level, which is biological stress marker that shows well in the hair, he said.

“That reflects their exposure to the stress related to the disruption of their environment by a renewable energy facility,” Bigelow said.

TAG – More information on the Ontario Research Chair program in Renewable Energy Technologies and Health is available at www.orc-reth.uwaterloo.ca.